Wednesday, 14 December 2016

What influences burnout in newly graduated nurses?

Roger Watson, Editor-in-Chief

Newly graduated nurses are a valuable commodity.There has been a lot of investment in their education and they bring new knowledge and enthusiasm to the health services where they work. So what causes them to burnout and, in many cases, leave? This study by Boamah et al. (2016) from Canada titled: 'Factors influencing new graduate nurse burnout development, job satisfaction and patient care quality: a time-lagged study' aimed to: 'test a hypothesized model linking new graduate nurses’ perceptions of their manager’s authentic leadership behaviours to structural empowerment, short-staffing and work–life interference and subsequent burnout, job satisfaction and patient care quality.'

Nearly 4,000 nurses were involved in responding to a survey at two time points approximately two years apart. The findings were simple: 'short-staffing and work–life interference are important factors influencing new graduate nurse burnout.' The authors conclude: 'Our results highlight the need for authentic leadership and empowering, supportive working conditions with adequate staffing to help mitigate work–life interference and subsequent burnout development and its negative effects.'